
Black Imagination
Black Voices on Black Futures
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $10.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Daveed Diggs
-
Lena Waithe
-
By:
-
Natasha Marin
About this listen
Recommended by Jason Reynolds on PBS NewsHour
“Don’t think for one minute that Black Imagination is easy. As you will read here, it is hard-earned and sometimes dangerous, but it’s necessary, and radical, to claim and work towards. Listening to my people in this book gave me so much life, and I’m pretty sure, dear reader, you’re in for the same.” (From the foreword by Steven Dunn)
“Witnessing is sacred work too. Seeing ourselves as whole and healthy is an act of pure rebellion in a world so titillated by our constant subjugation,” reflects viral curator Natasha Marin, on Black Imagination.
This dynamic collection of Black voices, performed by Tony and Grammy Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Daveed Diggs and Emmy Award-winning writer, creator, producer, and actor Lena Waithe, works like an incantation of origin, healing, and imagination.
Born from a series of conceptual art exhibitions, the perspectives gathered here are nowhere near monochromatic. “Craving nuance over stereotype, we sought out Black children, Black youth, LGBTQ+ Black folks, unsheltered Black folks, incarcerated Black folks, neurodivergent Black folks, as well as differently-abled Black folks.” Each insists on their own variance and challenges every listener to witness for themselves that Black Lives (and Imaginations) Matter.
"A first step toward freeing ourselves." (Gloria Steinem)
"I've never felt the physical feeling of pages melting in my hands or chapters folding themselves into squadrons of Black airplanes flying to freedom because I've never experienced an art object like Black Imagination." (Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy)
“Black Imagination required Natasha Marin to curate as a curate in the medieval sense - a spiritual guide that cares for souls... We are challenged to move beyond the abject, beyond pure pessimism, on the wings of a different criticality... 'visioning a world where none is lonely, none hunted, alien'.”(Christian Campbell, author of Running the Dusk)
"Defiantly hopeful... think Soul Train Line, think The Stroll, think the joyous striving with language for the possibilities of safety and hope.” (Kwame Dawes, author of Nebraska)
Cover art by Vanessa German.
©2020 Natasha Marin (P)2021 Scribd AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Rest Is Resistance
- A Manifesto
- By: Tricia Hersey
- Narrated by: Tricia Hersey
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace—feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted.
-
-
What an experience
- By makeba jones on 10-26-22
By: Tricia Hersey
-
God Is a Black Woman
- By: Christena Cleveland
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, Christena Cleveland spoke about racial reconciliation to congregations, justice organizations, and colleges. But she increasingly felt she could no longer trust in the God she’d been implicitly taught to worship—a white male God who preferentially empowered white men despite his claim to love all people. A God who clearly did not relate to, advocate for, or affirm a Black woman like Christena.
-
-
If you’ve grown up brown and evangelical but never quite fit in the whitemalegod club this book is for you.
- By Jason Como on 12-05-22
-
You Are Your Best Thing
- Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
- By: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown, the Contributors, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
-
-
Listen up...
- By HeyJude on 04-29-21
By: Tarana Burke, and others
-
The Will to Change
- Men, Masculinity, and Love
- By: bell hooks, Ross Gay
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone needs to love and be loved - even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are - whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
-
-
A unique call to an ethic of creative love
- By Forrest Aldridge on 09-26-20
By: bell hooks, and others
-
The 1619 Project
- A New Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Full Cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
-
-
Comprehensive and Cutting
- By Thomas Ray on 12-30-21
By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others
-
The Deep
- By: Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and others
- Narrated by: Daveed Diggs
- Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yetu holds the memories for her people - water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners - who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one - the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities.
-
-
why was this read by a dude?
- By Nathaniel on 12-14-19
By: Rivers Solomon, and others
-
Rest Is Resistance
- A Manifesto
- By: Tricia Hersey
- Narrated by: Tricia Hersey
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace—feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted.
-
-
What an experience
- By makeba jones on 10-26-22
By: Tricia Hersey
-
God Is a Black Woman
- By: Christena Cleveland
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, Christena Cleveland spoke about racial reconciliation to congregations, justice organizations, and colleges. But she increasingly felt she could no longer trust in the God she’d been implicitly taught to worship—a white male God who preferentially empowered white men despite his claim to love all people. A God who clearly did not relate to, advocate for, or affirm a Black woman like Christena.
-
-
If you’ve grown up brown and evangelical but never quite fit in the whitemalegod club this book is for you.
- By Jason Como on 12-05-22
-
You Are Your Best Thing
- Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
- By: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Tarana Burke, Brené Brown, the Contributors, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
-
-
Listen up...
- By HeyJude on 04-29-21
By: Tarana Burke, and others
-
The Will to Change
- Men, Masculinity, and Love
- By: bell hooks, Ross Gay
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone needs to love and be loved - even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are - whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
-
-
A unique call to an ethic of creative love
- By Forrest Aldridge on 09-26-20
By: bell hooks, and others
-
The 1619 Project
- A New Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Full Cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
-
-
Comprehensive and Cutting
- By Thomas Ray on 12-30-21
By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others
-
The Deep
- By: Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and others
- Narrated by: Daveed Diggs
- Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yetu holds the memories for her people - water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners - who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one - the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities.
-
-
why was this read by a dude?
- By Nathaniel on 12-14-19
By: Rivers Solomon, and others
-
Patriarchy Blues
- Reflections on Manhood
- By: Frederick Joseph
- Narrated by: Preston Butler III, Novell Jordan
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this thought-provoking collection of essays, poems, and short reflections, Frederick Joseph contemplates these questions and more as he explores issues of masculinity and patriarchy from both a personal and cultural standpoint. From fatherhood, and “manning up” to abuse and therapy, he fearlessly and thoughtfully tackles the complex realities of men’s lives today and their significance for society, lending his insights as a Black man.
-
-
Great read!
- By BlissfullyT on 11-15-23
By: Frederick Joseph
-
The Fire Next Time
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Jesse L. Martin
- Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At once a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic, James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil rights movement with this eloquent manifesto. The Fire Next Time stands as one of the essential works of our literature.
-
-
Sad and moving and powerful and beautiful
- By Darwin8u on 09-17-15
By: James Baldwin
-
The Art of Gathering
- How We Meet and Why It Matters
- By: Priya Parker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, we find ourselves in gatherings, Priya Parker says in The Art of Gathering. If we can understand what makes these gatherings effective and memorable, then we can reframe and redirect them to benefit everyone, host and guest alike. Parker defines a gathering as three or more people who come together for a specific purpose. When we understand why we gather, she says - to acknowledge, to learn, to challenge, to change - we learn how to organize gatherings that are relevant and memorable.
-
-
Would have liked a different narrator
- By Marta on 08-26-18
By: Priya Parker
-
Emergent Strategy
- By: adrienne maree brown
- Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically.
-
-
Great book. Too many footnotes.
- By Moon 🌙 on 09-09-23
-
Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
-
-
History never taught
- By Scott P ODonnell on 02-16-21
By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
-
This Here Flesh
- Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
- By: Cole Arthur Riley
- Narrated by: Cole Arthur Riley
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So writes Cole Arthur Riley in her unforgettable book of stories and reflections on discovering the sacred in her skin. In these deeply transporting pages, Arthur Riley reflects on the stories of her grandmother and father, and how they revealed to her an embodied, dignity-affirming spirituality, not only in what they believed but in the act of living itself.
-
-
A must read... but physically buy the book!
- By Erintopia on 09-26-22
-
Freedom Dreams
- The Black Radical Imagination
- By: Robin D.G. Kelley, Aja Monet - foreword
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 2002, Freedom Dreams is a staple in the study of the Black radical tradition. Unearthing the thrilling history of grassroots movements and renegade intellectuals and artists, Kelley recovers the dreams of the future worlds Black radicals struggled to achieve.
-
-
Full of past and future freedom dreams
- By Ambre Nulph on 02-12-23
By: Robin D.G. Kelley, and others
-
What I Know for Sure
- By: Oprah Winfrey
- Narrated by: Oprah Winfrey
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After film critic Gene Siskel asked her, "What do you know for sure?" Oprah Winfrey began writing the "What I Know for Sure" column in O, The Oprah Magazine. Saying that the question offered her a way to take "stock of her life", Oprah has penned one column a month over the last 14 years.
-
-
This one takes the cake
- By Destinee on 11-28-14
By: Oprah Winfrey
-
We Want Our Bodies Back
- Poems
- By: Jessica Care Moore
- Narrated by: Jessica Care Moore
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past two decades, Jessica Care moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist, and critic. Reflecting her transcendent electric voice, this searing poetry collection is filled with moving, original stanzas that speak to both Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race.
-
-
Ode to Black women
- By Kidd on 07-08-20
-
Missing Witches
- Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic
- By: Risa Dickens, Amy Torok
- Narrated by: Risa Dickens, Amy Torok
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As seekers and practitioners reclaim and restore magic to its rightful place among powerful forces for social, personal, and political transformation, more people than ever are claiming the identity of "witch". But our knowledge of witchcraft and magic has been marred by erasure, sensationalism, and sterilization, the true stories of history's witches left untold. Through meditations, stories, and practices, authors Risa Dickens and Amy Torok offer an intersectional, contemporary lens for uncovering and reconnecting with feminist witch history.
-
-
What a beautiful book
- By K Marie on 06-06-22
By: Risa Dickens, and others
-
Inquire Within
- By: In-Q
- Narrated by: In-Q
- Length: 2 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this powerful and innovative book of poetry and wisdom, award-winning spoken-word poet, songwriter, and performer IN-Q inspires us to question everything we know and see around us and inside us, to discover what matters most.
-
-
Ok in the beginning
- By Nelli on 01-15-22
By: In-Q
-
Broken Open
- How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow
- By: Elizabeth Lesser
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the more than 25 years since she co-founded Omega Institute - now the world's largest center for spiritual retreat and personal growth - Elizabeth Lesser has been an intimate witness to the ways in which people weather change and transition. In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, she offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed?
-
-
Fabulous Stories...Truly Deep and Moving
- By Mary on 01-13-09
By: Elizabeth Lesser